I earn more writing novels than short stories — and you probably will too — For several years now, I’ve been earning the majority of my income by writing fiction under a variety of pen names you’ve never heard of. And it isn’t anything special about me. Thousands of authors you’ve never heard of are quietly making a full-time living creating fiction. True, thousands of…

If you want to compromise with my rights, you don’t believe I have rights — and I’m calling you on it — Today’s official block-hammer goes to the nice lady who thinks American women should find some middle ground with those people who already ruled we have no right to privacy. Apparently, as reasonable people, the nice lady believes we should be able to see that those other people hold deep and…

Don’t care if Aristotle said it, don’t care if your English teacher did too — Ever so often, a Twitter or Discord thread gets started on the topic of, “What’s the dumbest writing advice you’ve ever heard?” Boy, oh boy, does that open the floodgates. As anybody who reads this platform regularly knows, there is a whole heck of a lot of dumb out there…

Don’t write one word before you do this — As a pantser — in polite parlance, a discovery writer — I often start a novel with a tiny seed that will grow into a mighty oak. A scrap of song. A faded photograph. A half-remembered dream. A lot of us start like that. We’re easily inspired. We sit down…

The birds and the bees can’t grab all the glory — It’s that magical time of year where, once again, we celebrate the pollinators who keep our farms producing and our grocery stores stocked — at least insofar as they are stocked this time of century. Yes, it’s Pollinator Week 2022. As I said last year, we love our pollinators —…

I just saw all 5 classic planets, and maybe you can too… — It’s possible again this week to observe all the classical planets if you get up early enough — about half an hour before dawn. Don’t recall now if I posted a few weeks ago when I did this, but I’d hate you to miss this lovely opportunity. It’s especially cute…

When a lovebird loves a chubby older cockatiel… — These two just hate being photographed doing anything cute. Often, all I have to do is raise the camera and that’s it. Party over. I got lucky the other day because Nyota the Peach-faced Lovebird and Boobear the White-Faced Cockatiel got into a kind of preening trance. …